I am lurkin in this thread for quite a long time, have had a break lately and now come back, browsing through the latest posts... First, I love most of the art here. even the crude sketches - as far as they relate to WoW. But I really have a problem with Rachel's art.

It's great from the perspective of technique. It's great from the perspective of imagination. But it deviates away from WoW (yeah, pun intended) in a way that I find mildly disturbing. It looks to me that the artist takes the theme of WoW and bends it to his own wills and desires so much, that the consistence breaks. Kind of a mild (or not that mild?) abuse of the setting.

New critters are OK, but, for example, Rachels interpretation of the dreanei is too much for me. (And I have no problems with any kind of deviations from normality, in fact, in my fiction world I am creating as a fantasy writer, I have a bunch of hermaphroditic, asexual and whatsoever characters just to explore different possibilities and mindsets, because it fascinates me). But I would never try to bend the world and setting of WoW to my fantasy that much. It does no credit to the creators of this world where I have been partly at home some years ago.

I'm not rejoicing. This is why I stopped posting art in the first place. To me, this thread doesn't feel like what it used to. I posted my sketches because people seem interested. I understood your criticism and if I was interested in posting my art in this thread again, I would have kept to probably doing links to sketches instead.

However, this thread has turned mostly into a "look at my art that I said is wow related and looks nothing like wow art at all." If you have a different opinion than any popular artist around here, you get snarky, passive aggressive remarks.

On top of that, the art posted most often is very nsfw, and absolutely have no warnings when unsafe work is posted. It's gotten on my nerves, but mods haven't done anything and I just view the thread now for other artists that I actually do enjoy seeing work of, no matter what their talent is.

Originally Posted by scubistacy

I am lurkin in this thread for quite a long time, have had a break lately and now come back, browsing through the latest posts... First, I love most of the art here. even the crude sketches - as far as they relate to WoW. But I really have a problem with Rachel's art.

It's great from the perspective of technique. It's great from the perspective of imagination. But it deviates away from WoW (yeah, pun intended) in a way that I find mildly disturbing. It looks to me that the artist takes the theme of WoW and bends it to his own wills and desires so much, that the consistence breaks. Kind of a mild (or not that mild?) abuse of the setting.

New critters are OK, but, for example, Rachels interpretation of the dreanei is too much for me. (And I have no problems with any kind of deviations from normality, in fact, in my fiction world I am creating as a fantasy writer, I have a bunch of hermaphroditic, asexual and whatsoever characters just to explore different possibilities and mindsets, because it fascinates me). But I would never try to bend the world and setting of WoW to my fantasy that much. It does no credit to the creators of this world where I have been partly at home some years ago.

I, too, have been a long time lurker on this thread. I absolutely adore WoW lore and art, and am a fanartist myself (no posts here, don't panic). I'm even having a WoW fancomic in 'development' right now, getting down to basics of what I'm allowed to do so Blizz won't bring down their wrath on me and close it once I start it.

The one thing I learned is to respect the work you're doing fanart of. My problem with Rachel's art isn't that she interprets the races in her own way, creates home planets for the Draenei (which I'm sure Blizzard already created, it's mentioned in a couple of books), and so on and so forth. I'm sure a lot of artists interpret the WoW setting in their own way and style, and like to add their own touches to it. Just do a search of WoW original characters on Deviantart (not the best example, mind you), or hell, look at Looking For Group webcomic - they are a blatant Blizz ripoff that managed to pass under the legal radar god knows how.
No, own interpretation isn't the issue that we mind, I believe. It's the fact that on several occasions, Rachel, and forgive me please if it looks like I'm attacking you personally, but some posts go along the lines of "Blizzard knows nothing of this particular thing (see: Worgen issue, female body shapes, etc), and they should learn from me". Personally, I believe that as long as you're not working for Blizzard, you DO have the right to say you're unhappy with their depiction of races or genders (a lot of people do it), but you DO NOT have the right to claim Blizz should learn from you or apply your designs. It's fun and games to design your own interpretation, and I'm sure everyone who has gotten in a fight here agrees that they look great, but the line is drawn at the moment we're being shown things that look NOTHING like something Blizzard would design, or has ever designed, and we're being told it's how they SHOULD design them.
No, they shouldn't. Because it's their setting, and theirs alone. If they want draenei females to be petite, skinny and with proportionate eyes, then that's how draenei should be, and your interpretation of draenei is yours and yours alone. Some of us like your worgen, your draenei, your pandaren females, your pandaren face designs, your creature designs, and so on and so forth, and it's fine to depict them in your style as long as you drop the "it's how they SHOULD be, Blizz knows NOTHING" attitude.
Now, I hope I didn't offend Rachel or look like I'm here to personally attack her, but it seems this is the only thing that's causing everyone to argue and quit. Rachel is a great artist, with great ideas and style, just... Tone down the "improvement" of Blizz's setting and style, and everyone will be happy, I'm sure. And add NSFW warnings at start of posts for the people who are offended by breasts, even if smooth as Barbies.

My two cents. Now, maybe I'll share some of my own work if I manage to make that number of required posts.

Those are 3d renders, the quality is somewhat crappy because it had to do a fast render.

Which program do you use?

I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An inch. It is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.

Do you import them into any other programs for digital sculpting like Mudbox, or is the detail on the model itself in Max? If it's in Max itself I can see why you did a quick render, it must be incredibly high poly count to get that type of smooth edge.

I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An inch. It is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.

Do you import them into any other programs for digital sculpting like Mudbox, or is the detail on the model itself in Max? If it's in Max itself I can see why you did a quick render, it must be incredibly high poly count to get that type of smooth edge.

It's Max all the way.
(whisper)I'll tell you a secret, the surface on the models is really smooth, and doesn't have any bumps or what so ever, the details you see there are made by the diferent shades in the texture (wood texture let's put it that way), and putting that same wood texture as a map, for bump therefore giving it the look that what is darker is a depression in the material.

Also had to do a quick render because i was at work, and that is definitly, not work related xD

It's Max all the way.
(whisper)I'll tell you a secret, the surface on the models is really smooth, and doesn't have any bumps or what so ever, the details you see there are made by the diferent shades in the texture (wood texture let's put it that way), and putting that same wood texture as a map, for bump therefore giving it the look that what is darker is a depression in the material.

Also had to do a quick render because i was at work, and that is definitly, not work related xD

Ah, I figured that if it was quick you would be using bump and specular maps to give it the illusion of depth if you wanted to have it rendered in any reasonable amount of time. Looking around the edges of the model where you can usually see some of the "corners" textures can't cover up well, it looks incredibly smooth, which is why I thought it might have been worked on a bit in Mudbox. The wood grain specular map is beautiful by the way, it looks incredibly natural which can be tricky with reflections on more organic looking things. Much respect <3

I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An inch. It is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.

Currently working on a commission for a shadow priestess, and trying out a new style. I understand the forum has a no nudity policy, so hopefully my censorship is enough ^^. If not, feel free to remove it.

One of my fav questlines in Wrath of the Lich King was the bit in Grizzly Hills where you track down and eventually fight Ursoc, one of the twin bear demigods, who has been reincarnated by his furbolg followers using the dark power of Yogg-Saron. They quickly discover that it is a bad idea to attempt to resurrect your demigod using the black blood of the Old God of Death.

I had the idea that some unscrupulous furbolg might also attempt to resurrect Ursoc's brother, Ursol, with disastrous results: